In 1976, a joint committee of Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians, supervised by the United Christian Council in Israel (UCCI), known today as the Evangelical Alliance of Israel (EAI), had introduced the novel Hebrew term: ‘Sefer Habritot’ – meaning Book of Covenants, referring to the “Old” and New Testaments.

Unexpectedly, towards the beginning of the 21st century many Israeli Messianic Jews replaced former names of Holy Scriptures with this title of ‘Sefer Habritot.’ In fact, this name became their designation for the Hebrew Bible containing the New Testament (NT) translated into conversational Hebrew.

However, one may ask: does this new term Book of Covenants also convey the accurate meaning of the ancient Hebrew word TANAKCH, which is a traditional acronym for Torah, Neviim (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings)? Or does the new name continue to express the old churchy notion of a “Jewish Bible,” as distinct from the “Christian Bible”? As if...